Involuntary Interior Redesign
by TheCrowMaiden
Summary: A stranger makes a rude comment to Pietro and Wanda based on their accents/language and makes the mistake of saying it in front of Natasha and Steve. A one-shot that just touches on the idea of the other Avengers being protective of the twins. No pairings.


Steve and Natasha had taken the twins out shopping for appropriate civilian clothing, going to both second-hand shops and new clothing stores. Half a day's shopping had yielded two large bags of clothing each for the twins, although Pietro had gotten a little bit more as he was more likely to wear through it.

They were walking back to the Tower, everyone carrying a bag and the twins talking about what they had found. Whenever they were excited or angry the twins tended to slip back into their first language, and Steve kept glancing at Natasha who seemed to understand most of the twins' happy chatter in Sokovian. He had asked them to teach him some of the main words once, so if they slipped back into on the Comms he would at least know if they were in trouble, but Steve obviously couldn't pick out single words when they were talking at full speed.

A man was standing next to them as they waited at a crosswalk, a briefcase in one hand. Pietro and Wanda glanced at him; he looked like he could have starred in a cereal commercial as the charming father of a nuclear family. The man was standing too close and looking at them with a look of complete disgust though, and when the twins paused in their conversation to look at him he glared at them.

"You should go back to where you came from!" The man said, and spat on the sidewalk.

"You know, it's a bit early to be concerned if they'll make their curfew." Steve said, putting a hand on each of the twins' shoulders. His voice was as cold and steely as his shield as he stood at his full height and looked the other man over. "They came from just a few blocks over."

Natasha came up on Wanda's other side and gave the man a once over of her own that should have terrified him, but the man had decided that the crosswalk signal was more interesting than the four of them. Pietro would have given him a piece of his mind, but Steve was forcibly steering him and Wanda back toward the Tower and the expression on the older man's face was one that brooked no argument.

They left the clothing in the laundry room in the Tower, and Natasha shot Steve a look that Pietro couldn't read before she mentioned having somewhere to be. The twins followed Steve upstairs as Natasha went back out, and the blond collected Sam along the way to the living room area.

Steve spoke quietly to Sam as they walked, and Sam drifted back to ask the twins what they had bought earlier after a moment. He got the twins talking about the clothing they had found, and had soon returned them to their early animation with his easy, friendly manner.

Pietro and Wanda went to bed feeling better, and didn't think more of the man on the street.

.~.

Steve was watching the news the next morning when the twins arrived in the living area, and the blond was sighing as he flipped channels. The major news story that kept flashing along the bottom of the screen was something about a CEO that was being targeted by spies, some of the variations more sensational than others.

"What's going on?" Pietro asked, as he and Wanda sat down next to Steve on the couch.

"Just a little comeuppance." Natasha cut in, walking in from the kitchen with a couple mugs of coffee. She handed one to Steve and sat in one of the chairs, smirking.

"Did you have to rearrange _all_ of his furniture?" Steve asked her, sighing again as another news anchor appeared on the screen with the 'latest scoop'. "I was expecting something more subtle."

"It was subtle, Rogers."

" _What_ was subtle?" Wanda asked, looking at the older woman. "Whose comeuppance?"

The two older Avengers shared a look, and Steve switched the TV back to one of the major news channels. It took a few minutes of police officers repeating the same things and politicians either refusing to comment or insisting on action before the CEO's picture was shown and both the twins gaped. It was the man who had yelled at them in the street the day before, only looking much the worse for wear.

"What did you to him?" Pietro asked, staring at Natasha while Wanda tried to read the fast moving text at the bottom of the TV screen.

"I rearranged his apartment a little." Natasha shrugged, delicately cleaning her nails. "I thought a little _feng shui_ might help with his outdated outlook on life."

"Don't forget the floorboard you loosened up so it creaks in the night."

"Of course." The redhead replied with a decidedly smug smile. She sipped her coffee and took the remote from Steve, flipping through the channels herself.

"Officially she did nothing, though." Steve said, looking at the twins. "This never goes beyond the four of us."

Pietro and Wanda nodded in unison, and Steve shared a smile with Natasha before he stood and collected the empty coffee mugs. Natasha uncurled from the armchair and turned the TV off, tossing the remote onto the table.

"Come on, you two." She said. "Get some breakfast, we have training in an hour."

The two Avengers walked away, discussing what exactly they would be doing for the training session and if it would be worth it to head to the new facility or not. Pietro and Wanda stayed on the couch for a moment longer, and Wanda turned the TV back on so they could watch the news again. The man looked like hell in every interview, and the newscasters were naming every potentially hostile country they could think of as potential culprits for the crime.

"I'm glad we're on her side." Pietro said to Wanda with a grin, and got up.

'We're not just on her side." She replied as the man appeared on the screen again. His eyes were bloodshot, and Wanda smiled a bit vindictively.

"She's on ours, too."


End file.
